I've had quite a few rabbits, just got a NZW doe yesterday. Unlimited hay & water, a bowl of pellets (.Timothy based is supposedly better), lots of vegetables & grazing (I never purposefully limited either). Vets are expensive, and I've found rabbits very delicate. Often when they're sick they're finished no matter how much $$ you throw into them or at what vet's. Be sure and ask your vet what their rabbit anesthesia survival rate is.

I have found males less aggressive. I don't think I ever had a male that bit/growled/lunged. That said, sweetest rabbit i ever owned/met was a doe and the meanest I've encountered was a buck. Males tend to spray urine unless neutered.

As a current non-rabbit person, but someone would like own one someday, I have a really, REALLY hard time swallowing the mantra that all behavioral and health problems in pet rabbits come from having their gonads. This is only compounded by things like this:

Quote:

Spayed or neutered rabbits that live in the house on the proper diet have a life span of ten to thirteen years.
Unspayed/unneutered rabbits that live outside have an average life span of three years.

Yeah, ive had rabbits constantly for over a decade, intact and altered and haven't noticed a difference healthwise. Havent noticed a difference "human-aggressive" wise. I've had rabbits altered that were altered ASAP that were nippy and growly, had rabbits altered at several months to a year that retained prior personality. I'll have to think about whether rabbit-aggression changed much. My sweet rabbit was always sweet and my most aggressive remained aggressive but I'll have to think about the in-betweens.

However, I do think altering helped spraying behavior in males ( I'll have to contemplate my evidence as it's been 5 years or so since I've had an intact male)

As far as 80% of does getting uterine cancer by 4, I suspect that's BS at least in part (though I'm not blaming SarahHound as I know HRS and every other modern pet rabbit keeping organization claims this)

I should ask the breeder I bought the NZW from if it's rare for a doe to make it past four.

Erm I had about 9 intact females over the years. None were spayed and the 7 I had their whole lives lived 6-8 years. Also had about 3 bucks, but I only had two their whole lives, they had a similar lifespan. All were handled regularly at home, and annually while showing were handled by strangers, and all but one were people-friendly. All but one (same one) were pretty friendly with other rabbits as well.

I've seen the dead-by-4 claim before and wondered, but my info is anecdotal at best so take it for what it is.